MAIL Online: Veteran Tory Lord Tebbit provoked anger among Muslims yesterday by comparing Islamic sharia courts to gangsters.
He likened the tribunals to the 'system of arbitration of disputes that was run by the Kray brothers'.
Lord Tebbit told the Lords: 'Are you not aware that there is extreme pressure put upon vulnerable women to go through a form of arbitration that results in them being virtually precluded from access to British law?'
The intervention from Lord Tebbit, the former Tory chairman and cabinet minister whose leading role in the Thatcher years has made him a revered figure for many in the party, reignited the row over Islamic courts and their role in the British justice system.
Muslim critics called his remarks 'baseless and ignorant'.
Last autumn, ministers confirmed that sharia tribunals may deal with family and divorce disputes among Muslims, and that sharia decisions need only the briefest scrutiny in a law court to win full legal effect.
Five sharia courts currently operate mediation systems approved under the 1996 Arbitration Act.
Their decisions on divorce, money and children can be approved by a family court if they are submitted to a judge for approval. >>> By Steve Doughty | Thursday, June 04, 2009
